<b>Jenny Goldsmith / Special to the Bonanza </b>John Krolick, owner of Alpine Realty International, has been a licensed real estate agent in Incline Village for the past 20 years. Despite starting his business at the midst of an economic recession in 2008, Krolick attributes his success to pure determination, and is optimistic the market is on the road to recovery.

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INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev. — He survived the savings and loan crisis in the 1980s, he endured the dot-com bubble burst in 2000, and he’s determined to persevere through the current economic recession, which he optimistically believes is on the road to recovery, notably in his field: real estate. Since his college days as a Nittany Lion at Penn State University in the late 1980s, John Krolick has invested his life’s work in selling residential and commercial property, and he’s not about to stop now.“It’s all about persistence; it’s the only thing that really helps in this business,” said Krolick — a genuine man with a nice smile and pleasant demeanor. “You’ve got to continue to show up, keep exposing yourself in the business and eventually, the sales will come — as long as you don’t disappear.”In 1991, one day after graduating from Penn State with a degree in business and marketing, Krolick and his wife, Gail, moved to Incline Village for sunshine, skiing and to break into the competitive resort market.Krolick’s early days in Tahoe were spent developing Lead Generation Marketing, where he manually solicited information on potential real estate buyers — an occupation that became largely Internet-based in 1993.“The Internet made the Lead Generation side of things turn from a dollar industry into a penny industry,” Krolick said. “It turned almost overnight, and there just wasn’t a job there anymore.”As a licensed real estate agent in Nevada since 1991, Krolick used his Lead Generation capabilities to capitalize on job opportunities within the field, but the business wasn’t entirely receptive to the rookie 25-year-old agent.“It was a hard community to break into and I had a lot to prove,” Krolick said. “It’s a very competitive market in Tahoe and there’s a rather large audience of real estate agents within this community.”True to form, Krolick maintained his determination and didn’t let his competitors extinguish his burning fire to succeed. For the next 15 years, Krolick worked as a full-time real estate agent for several different firms within the Incline Village community; however, when a business venture began to deteriorate in 2008, Krolick knew it was time to explore other options. With the help of his wife Gail — who’s also a licensed real estate agent in Nevada — Krolick opened Alpine Realty International (now located in the Raley’s shopping center) and committed the business to high end luxury real estate sales and commercial investment properties. “At that point, it was either go out and start my own company or go back to one of the other companies in town, so I opted to create my own,” Krolick said. “I knew it wasn’t the best time to start a real estate company, but I figured I had survived other financial crises in the past and didn’t think this one would last as long as it has.”To combat the current economic recession, Krolick is coming up with creative ways to reinvent the Incline Village real estate market on a broader spectrum. He is currently working toward completion of becoming a Certified International Property Specialist — a title that will allow him to connect and network with more international clients by bringing recognition to the area. “Last year, in this country alone, $82 billion in real estate sales were by foreign investors, so there’s power in that and it can’t hurt our local market to bring more recognition to the area,” Krolick said. “It’s definitely time for modernization and truly my goal in 2012 is to take our message to as wide of an audience as possible and capture that niche of highly successful individuals who can afford the luxury of a second property.” When the family man isn’t investing time in his career or studying up on changes in Tahoe Regional Planning Agency regulations, he’s either shredding the slopes at Diamond Peak or boating on Lake Tahoe with his wife and two daughters, Alexis and Tiffany.“We came here because of mountains and skiing, but I’ve truly grown to enjoy the summer more than anything else,” Krolick said. Krolick and his team of highly qualified agents will continue to ride out the recession, but much like his attitude toward life, he optimistically believes the nation is on the road to recovery. “The darkest days are behind us and it’s only going to get better from here on out,” Krolick said.